Why It’s Not Always Healthy To Be Influenced By Social Media

Morning chickpeas! Happy Sunday!

Hope you’ve all had a good week and are enjoying your weekends!

So today is a slightly different post to what I’d usually write about, but it’s a topic that’s been cogging around in my noggin for a few days now and that I think is worth talking about. And that’s the crazy world of social media. Aka. Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter- pretty much the lot- and how we are all constantly influenced by the people we see on these platforms on a day to day basis.

Whether you’re at school, university, work or anything in between, it’s likely that you use at least one of these sites every single day. If you don’t use them, it’s likely you at least scroll through and see what’s new in the world of celebrities, friends, bloggers and news stories. Which is great and an amazing way to keep in the loop and up to date with what is going on around you, plus it’s an easy to way to connect with others via the likes of DM’S, comments and retweets. We can all relate right?

And as this is now how our world connects and communicates, it’s a completely normal concept to us; to be engrossed in every aspect of other people’s lives and wrapped up in what others are doing, every minute of every day. As I was sat on my lunch break the other day, scrolling endlessly through Instagram, it occurred to me that I wasn’t spending my free hour doing what I wanted to do, or what I should be doing with my free time; I was instead occupying myself with the lives of other people and what they were doing with their day. Why was I doing this? How was it benefiting me? Did I actually want to know what others were doing whilst I was sat at work? Surely not, that’s basically torture. So why was I continuing to do it?

We scroll through Instagram, liking pictures and tagging friends in comments as a normal, everyday activity to pass the time, but on reflection, it’s not exactly beneficial to our daily routines. I’ve began to think, how is this impacting on my day? What am I getting out of this? Usually it’s not a lot. Now don’t get me wrong, I am the worst culprit for this. I am always on Instagram and Pinterest, liking and commenting what I love about other’s photos, connecting with bloggers I follow and keeping up to date with new beauty product releases and clothing brands. And I love it, no bones about it, Instagram is my favourite social media platform – it’s the best way to follow your interests, inspirations and hobbies. And I’m sure you’ll agree with me, it’s a fab way of keeping connected with the people and things you love.

However despite the endless positives, I feel like platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest seem to unintentionally set high expectations for young people in terms of their general life choices, body image and lifestyle decisions. Now this is just my personal opinion, but I’m sure some of you would agree, that after just a few minutes of scrolling through Instagram, you instantly feel ever so slightly differently about your own life. Why aren’t I as successful as them? I wish my hair looked as amazing as that! Her style is amazing, why can’t my wardrobe be like hers?

I’m sure we all think those thoughts at least every once in a while, and that’s completely normal! We can be quick to feel our lives aren’t as good as other people’s and we are ‘unsuccessful’ or ‘boring.’ The truth is, on social media, we see the ‘best.’ We see people’s ‘best selves’ which to us is the ideal, the ultimate goal. But actually, it’s likely not what it’s portrayed to be. We all go through our difficult times and periods of uncertainness and the unknown. And they’re really horrible, low times to have to experience but that’s how life works and we have to be knocked down to get back up and keep going. So what makes us think it’s any different for the gorgeous fashion bloggers with thousands of followers and a wardrobe to die for, or the successful business owners or the glam Youtuber’s? They have likely put a hell of a lot of time into doing what they love and worked their socks off, in order to achieve the best they possibly can. And this applies to everything, so whether you’re training to be a nurse, working towards a degree, revising for A-Level exams, or learning to drive; everyone has their own goals (big or small) that they want to achieve and as long as you’re happy and working towards them with amazing people around you, that’s all that matters.

I really do believe you get out what you put in, it’s just that we’re still on our own personal lil’ journeys to amazing things and are experiencing the magical journey that is life. We are constantly a work in progress and it’s okay to not know exactly what we want to do and how to get there. Since having this different train of thought, I’ve seen social media in a different light and have thought up a few little things to bear in mind if ever I doubt my progress or what I’ve achieved.

Focus on what you’re doing and what makes you genuinely happy, as absolutely nothing is worth doing or having, if you aren’t happy.

Think about what success actually means to you. Everyone’s idea of success is completely different so where one person’s could be to be happily married and starting a family by the age of 35, another’s could be to be progressing well into their career by then.

Accept that everyone’s timing is different. Life is not a race and it’s not a competition to see who can get married first, who can be the youngest to buy their own first home or who can earn the most money. We all achieve our goals and dreams at different times in our lives and we are met with obstacles and knock-backs along the way that we have to overcome. So it’s important to accept that our time will come when it’s ready and in the meantime, to be happy with the journey.

Figure out what’s important to you, what you want to achieve and work out a rough plan on how you’re going to get there, as a good plan is the first step to reaching your goals.

Learn to be inspired by what you see from others, especially on social media. Take something you’ve seen and make it your own. Come across a makeup look you adore online? Do it! Seen a blogger’s style you think is blinkin’ gorgeous? Re-create it with your own unique flair! Do what makes you happy and don’t let anything stand in your way (including fear)! I held off starting up a blog for ages because I was scared of what people would think of it and myself but if you lived your life like that, you wouldn’t do anything. Just be content and happy with who you are as a person and what you have in your life and learn to value the little things as they really do mean the most.

Love who you have around you. Now this is the biggest and most important – I truly believe that life is meaningless without the people you love to share it with, so treasure them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this slightly different post and it’s given you a little bit of motivation to get up and do you! Don’t get too wrapped up in what everyone else is doing and focus on yourself and what you want out of life.

D i s c l a i m e r

Everything on my blog is my own honest, personal opinion and the content I produce is for entertainment purposes only and not to be perceived as professional advice or information in any way…
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Thanks petals X